The Best of Polish National Parks

National Parks cover a mere 1% of Poland’s territory. But what a 1%! You can find everything there: mountains, sea, lakes. You can see bison, shifting sand dunes or the tree beneath which King Jagiello once rested.

There are 23 national parks in total. The oldest is Bialowieski National Park, founded 86 years ago, which consists of an area of virgin forest inhabited by Europe’s largest mammals (the bison) as well as its smallest (the pygmy shrew, weighing only a few grams).

Each of the national parks is a treasure-house of records. Of only two primeval forests bordering on a great metropolis anywhere in the world, one lies in the suburbs of Warsaw in the Kampinoski National Park. The other is in Nigeria. The Narew river, a long section of which is protected within a National Park, is one of only two braid-like rivers in the world. And the Gory Stolowe (Table Mountains) National Park has the only plate-structured mountains in Europe.